Virgin Galactic Signs Deal to Launch Scientists Into Space

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The space tourism company Virgin Galactic, which is building a
fleet of reusable private spaceships, has inked a landmark deal
to fly scientists into suborbital space for research.

Under the new agreement, Virgin Galactic has sold two tickets for
seats aboard the company's SpaceShipTwo commercial spaceliners to
the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado. Six more
seats are on reserve for the institute.

The deal has a total value of about $1.6 million and is the first
agreement by Virgin Galactic specifically aimed at flying
scientists into suborbital space. Until now, the company has been
taking deposits primarily from thrill seekers and eager space
tourists hoping for a chance to fly on the
SpaceShipTwo space planes.

"This agreement signals the enormous scientific potential of the
Virgin spaceflight system," Virgin Galactic president and CEO
George Whitesides said in a statement. "Science flights will be
an important growth area for the company in the years to come,
building on the strong commercial success already demonstrated by
deposits received from over 400 individuals for Virgin's space
experience."

"We at SwRI are very excited about this agreement," said
scientist Alan Stern, vice president of SwRI's space division.
"Initially, two of our payload specialists will be flying on
Virgin Galactic, conducting biomedical monitoring, atmospheric
imaging, and microgravity planetary regolith experiments."

Stern is one of the two SwRI scientists selected to ride on the
first flight under the deal with Virgin Galactic. SwRI has
already placed full deposits for those seats.

"We've already designed and built three experiments to fly on
these flights," Stern told SPACE.com in an e-mail.

Passenger joyrides

Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Sir
Richard Branson to offer private trips to suborbital space at a
cost of about $200,000 per seat. The company uses an air-launched
spaceflight system that includes the sleek SpaceShipTwo vehicle
and its massive carrier mothership WhiteKnightTwo.

The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft is designed to carry six passengers
and two pilots into suborbital space – more than 62 miles (100
km) above Earth – and back. The first SpaceShipTwo vehicle,
called the VSS Enterprise, is currently undergoing a series of
glide tests, with rocket-powered test flights expected sometime
this year.

The first passenger flights of SpaceShipTwo could occur by 2012,
Virgin Galactic officials have said.

SpaceShipTwo is carried up to launch altitude by WhiteKnightTwo,
a huge aircraft that is striking because of its twin hull design.
SpaceShipTwo fits snugly between the aircraft's two booms during
carry flights. The first WhiteKnightTwo is named "Eve" after
Branson's mother.

The WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles were designed by
veteran aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan and the firm he founded,
Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif. Rutan and Scaled developed
the new craft after the success of their SpaceShipOne space
plane, which won $10 million in 2004 during the Ansari X Prize
contest for reusable private spacecraft.

Other deals

Virgin Galactic officials said the SpaceShipTwo-WhiteKnightTwo
spaceflight system has also drawn interest from NASA for
commercial access to suborbital space for scientific research.

The institute has also reportedly purchased six commercial
spaceflights on the two-seat
Lynx space planes being developed by the company XCOR
Aerospace in California. That deal was announced last week, but a
timeline for when the flights may take place is not yet final,
XCOR officials said.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on
Twitter@tariqjmalik.